How I Saved the World in a Week

by Polly Ho-Yen

  ‘That’s it,’ I mumble to myself, although my mouth is parched, my throat sandpaper-dry. I sound strangled and hoarse as though I am a Grey myself.

  I stumble on to the road now, the quickest route that will lead me directly towards it, although I almost tumble as my feet trip up on the loose stones on the tarmac and my legs speed up with a new energy I didn’t know I had. I rush towards the Martello tower, breaking into a lolloping run.

  I feel the raindrops fall on me before I realize it’s raining. They patter on the road around me, like drumbeats.

  I look up. The blue sky has been replaced with dark rain clouds.

  I’m suddenly sharply aware of my footsteps pounding upon the tarmac in an offbeat and wild beat.

  It takes me a moment to realize that they are not my footsteps I’m hearing.

  HOW TO (ALMOST) GET CAUGHT

  The Grey runs sinuously, moving with the grace of a cheetah. It’s growing closer with every pace. Its legs look like they are moving so fast it might trip up over itself to reach me.

  I feel the same way; I am running so fast that I am almost falling over myself to get away.

  I try not to look back as I know this will slow me but at the same time, I can’t stop myself from glancing back, just to know it’s not on top of me.

  Its face is crumpled and shrunken. There’s something mesmerizing about it, definitely human but not at the same time. I can’t help but try to imprint something living upon what is left behind.

  I turn back as my shoes skid over the wet ground and the unbalance catches me: my heart is bursting and pounding. This fear still feels new, raw, even though I’ve faced it before on the journey to get here.

  But I can’t stop. I can’t let the Grey touch me. So still I run. And then I trip, the black road dampened by raindrops coming up to meet me.

  I plummet to the ground, spinning and breathless. Skidding over the uneven ground until I fall in a heap and with nothing left to protect me, I clasp my arms over my head, waiting for the claws of the Grey to hook around me.

  ‘Get away!’ I hear someone bellow. ‘Get away from him! You’ll infect him!’

  And then I hear footsteps again, loud and insistent, but this time they are running away. When I look up, I see a car – it’s not one of the army trucks but a large Land Rover that’s covered in mud, and beyond it, I see the Grey running away into the distance as though there is something invisible that is chasing them and they have to get away from it.

  Before I can even start to think about why the Grey is running, the car screeches to a halt at an angle ahead of me and the doors are thrown open.

  HOW TO FIND YOUR FAMILY

  Angharad is there first, flinging the door open and running towards me so fast that we collide into one another in a crash, crying, laughing and hugging all at once.

  Steve darts from the driver’s side of the car and before I know what is happening, he has me wrapped up in his arms.

  ‘Oh, Billy, oh, Billy,’ Steve is saying into my hair. He smells of sweat and a little of petrol.

  ‘I’ve got you, I’ve got you,’ Steve says. He thrusts me away from him and looks at me all over as though to check that I still have two legs, two arms and a head. ‘Are you all right? Are you all right?’

  But before I can answer him, he suddenly starts crying. Large, noisy tears that rack through his whole body.

  ‘You are all right, aren’t you?’ he manages, through sobs.

  I nod and then we are hugging each other again. So tightly that it hurts just a tiny bit, so tightly that I have to remind myself that this is Steve, not Sylvia.

  ‘I thought I’d lost you,’ he says when we stop hugging. ‘I couldn’t bear it – I thought that I’d lost you again.’ He looks at me like he can’t believe that I am really there.

  He won’t let go of my shoulders. He is still clenching them tightly.

  I peek a look up at him. Tears are still streaming down his face. It seems like they won’t ever stop.

  ‘Really?’ I say quietly.

  ‘What?’

  ‘You really didn’t want to lose me?’

  ‘Billy – of course not! You are… you are my world. I can’t imagine being without you.’

  ‘Even though… even though I was the reason you left us, because I made Sylvia sick? Even though I was the one that changed her?’

  ‘What are you talking about?’

  ‘I heard you and Julie talking about it. You said that she changed after I was born. I’m the reason she was taken to hospital. I’m the reason I can’t see her any more.’

  Steve’s face slowly changes; it goes from being wretched and confused to finally understanding. He remembers saying it, he can’t hide the truth.

  ‘Oh, Billy! I didn’t know you were listening, and didn’t really mean it like that. Your mum, well, she did change after you were born, yes. Some of those changes were a bit scary for me – the survival stuff took over, she couldn’t seem to put it aside any more. But there were other changes too – changes that were so wonderful. I’d never seen your mum as happy as she was when she was with you. It was like someone had switched a light on inside of her, you know? None of it, none of that bad stuff, is your fault. It’s my fault – for not being able to deal with it properly. Maybe a bit of your mum’s fault too for driving me away, but I should have tried harder to stay around and help her. But you are not to blame for anything, I promise. Do you understand me? It’s very important that you understand me.’

  ‘But you don’t like me doing my survival stuff? All I do… is upset you and make you mad,’ I blurt out.

  ‘Billy, that’s not true! I mean, yes, at first I didn’t like the idea of you carrying on with all the survival things, but I think that’s because I got it all mixed together in my head.’ He pauses. ‘You enjoying learning all those skills is very different from your mum feeling that she had to do those things. I realize that now. And I was stupid for being cruel to you when we were travelling to the farm. Where would we have been without you? I was scared, that was all. I felt like I was letting you down, and now I see that I was, but just in a different way, and I’m so sorry for that.’

  I stare down at the floor, not sure how to process everything he’s saying. It’s not my fault, he doesn’t blame me…

  ‘I’m the one who needs to deal with what happened between me and your mum,’ Steve continues. ‘But, Billy, you must know, I love everything about you. I know I’m not good at showing it or saying it, but I do. I never wanted to have all that time of not seeing you. I used to drive to London sometimes and sit outside your flat. Just so I might be able to catch a glimpse of you. I missed you so, so much.’

  ‘You were the man in the car!’ I exclaim. ‘I saw you! On Christmas Day morning.’

  Steve is nodding.

  ‘Did you ever follow us into the woods?’ I ask. ‘When we made a fire.’ I remember the figure by the dying fire on the day the storm started, on the last day of term. Has he really been watching me all this time? Wishing he could see me again?

  ‘That was me,’ Steve says, a little sheepishly. ‘Your mum was always too good at spotting me. I know I’m not her – I’m not as exciting and I’m sure you’ve been really bored living with me. I just can’t believe how talented you are, how brave and kind and strong – I just can’t believe you’re my son, that I’m your dad.’

  ‘You don’t bore me, Dad,’ I say in a rush.

  Steve looks up sharply when I call him that. He starts to smile and then quickly looks like he is going to start crying again.

  He embraces me again in a tight hug, squeezing me so tightly that I don’t know where I begin, where I end. When he lets me go, there is only a beat of a moment before Julie and Angharad are wrapping their arms around me, just as closely.

  ‘Billy,’ I hear Angharad say into my hair, as though she is sighing. When we release each other, her eyes are a swirl of tears.

  ‘You broke your promise again…’ I say.

 
‘I’m sorry! I know you’re going to be mad at me, but I had to, Billy. Your dad, my mum, they were so worried and I couldn’t stand the idea of you being all alone—’

  But I cut her off. ‘And I’m glad that you did.’

  She smiles back at me.

  ‘I can keep secrets, you know,’ she says. ‘In fact, I’m pretty good at it. But—’

  ‘There are secrets you know you must keep,’ Julie finishes for her. ‘But there are others that you decide to break because you know it will help someone. The trick is knowing the difference. It’s so good to see you again, Billy. So good.’

  They hug me again.

  ‘I just can’t believe you’re all here.’ Even as I say the words, even as I see them in front of me, I can still barely believe it.

  ‘Of course we are,’ Angharad says back. ‘We wouldn’t leave you behind. We stick together now.’

  ‘That’s right,’ Steve says. ‘We’re a family now.’ He says the words slowly, looking around at us all for reassurance that what he’s saying is right. Julie and Angharad nod through the tears that stain their cheeks in shiny, wet lines. I feel Angharad’s fingers reach for mine and squeeze them very gently.

  ‘And that means you don’t have to do all the hard stuff on your own,’ Julie says to me. ‘Because we help each other – we’ll always be there to help each other.’

  I feel the words sink into me. They make me feel warm inside, like when the sun spreads its rays gently across your back, and slowly something inside me begins to unknot.

  ‘And Sylvia, of course,’ Julie adds. ‘Your mum is important to you, Billy, so she’s an important part of our family too.’

  ‘I think she’s hiding in there,’ I say, pointing out the stubby, grey building in the distance.

  ‘Let’s go then,’ says Steve. ‘The news reports are saying that things have calmed down since we left the city. The army’s been deployed now and things are getting better, but we still need to keep our wits about us.’

  ‘Have they said anything about the Greys reacting to sunlight?’ I ask. ‘Len said… Len’s a motorcyclist who drove me most of the way here, he thought that they have to avoid bright sunlight.’

  Julie nods. ‘Your friend was right. It’s been on the government briefings that we saw at my dad’s house. They’ve been saying that sunlight repels the Greys, especially when they are first infected. But they think they might get desensitized to it over time. So if it’s sunny like now it doesn’t necessarily mean that they won’t be around. There’s a lot they don’t know yet.’

  ‘And apparently they’re behaving differently than they did when they first got infected,’ Angharad tells me. ‘Some of them seem like they are avoiding people now and some scientists even think that they can understand you when you speak to them. They’ve had reports that when people have told Greys to stop before they get too close, they can sometimes understand.’

  ‘Is that why you yelled at that Grey?’ I ask. ‘Told it that it would infect me?’

  ‘Yes. I wasn’t sure it would work, but I had to try.’

  ‘Well, I’m glad it did.’ Julie reaches down to grasp Angharad’s hand.

  We all climb into the Land Rover. It’s so high off the ground that I have to clamber up to get inside. Steve passes me a bottle of water that I drain immediately, then he gives me a chocolate bar that I tear into – it’s melted a little at the edges but at that moment it’s the most delicious thing I’ve ever eaten.

  Steve turns the key in the car but the engine whines and then cuts out. He tries again and this time it whines for a shorter time and dies more quickly. The next time, it can barely make a chugging sound before there’s silence.

  ‘Right,’ Steve says in the way that I know means he doesn’t really know what to do.

  ‘Let’s walk to the tower,’ I say. ‘I really do think Sylvia will be there. She’s good at fixing cars. She’ll probably have some tools there.’

  Steve hesitates for a moment, taking in the distance left between the car and the tower, but then he looks round at us all.

  ‘Let’s go,’ he says.

  * * *

  As we approach the tower it looks deserted.

  There are no signs of life at all. There’s no face at the window, no vehicle parked close by, not even any rubbish on the ground.

  There are just lots of rocks that are scattered around – large, grey boulders – amidst the trees and bushes. I don’t remember them from before but then I remember again that it was night when I came here; I easily would have missed them in the darkness.

  ‘So you’ve been here before?’ Julie asks me.

  ‘Once – just before the fire happened. Sylvia was stockpiling supplies and things and driving out here every night, while I was asleep, to get it ready.’

  ‘Can you remember how to get in?’ Steve asks.

  ‘There’s a door just round that side, at the back.’ I point. As I reach out my hand, something catches my eye.

  It’s a flicker of a movement. It’s so slight, like the spark that starts a flame, that it’s only clear that it’s something moving as the movement grows.

  It’s one of the rocks that are surrounding us.

  One of the rocks is moving, and then another, and then another.

  The movement catches, it passes from one to another, as though it is an infection.

  They aren’t rocks at all.

  We are surrounded by Greys.

  HOW TO (TRY NOT TO) GET INFECTED

  ‘Get behind me,’ Steve says. ‘Stay behind me.’

  The Grey that first moved has unfurled to standing.

  ‘Stop!’ Angharad shouts out. ‘Stop! You’ll infect us if you get too close.’

  The Grey turns its head sharply as Angharad’s words echo around us. I see its stony eyes flash with understanding and there’s other emotions there too; the same sadness I saw in the Grey on the road, and there’s fear as well. It looks afraid of us.

  ‘Get back!’ Julie cries out.

  The Grey makes a movement backwards, slow and deliberate, but at the very same moment its arm extends out, its clawed hand reaches and stretches towards us.

  It struggles against its extended arm but it’s as though it is being pulled by a stronger force and in the next moment it has turned towards us and it’s stepping forward.

  It screams. That dead, hollow sound seems so empty of meaning, but from the look in its eyes I can tell it’s trying to tell us something. It’s not afraid of us; it’s afraid for us.

  ‘You are both going to run, okay? When I tell you to run, run. You understand?’ Steve keeps his voice very low and calm.

  ‘Don’t look back,’ Julie says. ‘Run as fast as you can.’

  My eyes flash to the grey, squat tower. There’s no sign of life. I reach out for Steve’s shirt and feel the soft fabric knot between my fingers. I want to keep hold of him. I can’t lose him, because in this moment, I know that Sylvia is not here.

  If she were in the tower, then she would be out here, helping us. If she were in there, she would do something, she would save us, she would save me.

  ‘Get ready, Billy,’ Steve says. ‘You have to run and get as far from here as you can, okay?’

  ‘I can’t leave you,’ I say. ‘I don’t want to leave you.’

  ‘It’s okay, it’s okay. It’s going to be okay. But you have to run, when I say. You have to run.’

  His hand snakes behind his back and finds mine. He squeezes it, without looking round. His eyes are fixed on the Greys that are one by one waking and slowly uncurling to stand.

  ‘Mum, we’ll stay with you, we won’t leave you,’ I hear Angharad say fiercely. The first one that rose writhes against its arm that still reaches towards us, seeking us out. For a moment, it looks like it might be stronger and it pulls its clawed fingers back by just a few millimetres. But in the same moment, another Grey lunges forward, its hand outstretched.

  ‘Run! Run!’

  Steve is screaming the words; his
eyes are bulging, white and wide with fear.

  I can hear his screaming but my legs are frozen where I stand. My heart is in my mouth; I can feel its wild beating almost choking me.

  ‘Bil-ly!’

  It’s Angharad and she’s shouting my name so loudly it slices across the clearing. Her hand is in mine, and she’s trying to pull at me, to pull me away. But still, I can’t make myself move.

  I feel as though I am not in my body any more, but that I have risen above everything that’s happening and I am looking down on us from a great, great height.

  And in those moments, I can see it all so clearly.

  The Greys, all around us, their bodies making a wall that encircles us.

  They could be mistaken for grotesque statues, cast out of stone or metal or any other leaden material.

  Almost.

  If only their arms didn’t twist away from their bodies like branches growing from a tree.

  If only the sound of whining shrieks and wrenching screams didn’t ring from their crooked mouths.

  If only they weren’t rippling towards us.

  There are so many more of them and they are everywhere.

  More and more rise with every moment that passes.

  There are too many.

  It’s suddenly so clear to me: this time, we will not escape them.

  Julie screams out for them to leave us. Steve stands in front of us, his arms out wide, his body the only barrier between the Greys and Angharad and me. And the Greys forge towards us, getting a little closer with every step.

  Never stop trying – you must never give up! I hear Sylvia’s voice so clearly, it’s as though she’s right there next to me.

  And in the next moment I am back in my body, back in my feet, and my hand’s in my pocket.

  I feel the reassuring lump of the old chocolate tin that Anwar dug out for me. My mind runs through everything that’s inside it in case there’s anything of any use. And then seemingly out of nowhere my brain grasps onto a plan. I have no idea if it will work. I have no idea, in fact, what will happen at all but I have the strongest feeling that it’s the right thing to do.